Heads up, Tamiya is letting the elephant, or elefant, out. A much anticipated release, finally announced.

Tamiya has officially announced the release of their upcoming 1/35 scale Elefant. Unfortunately they have not put a date to it, but they did release a few details. This kit will be a new tooling from Tamiya, with fighting compartement, 8.8cm gun, and commander cupola accurately reproduced according to Tamiya. Tamiya has stated "Extensive research was conducted by Tamiya's designers to bring the modeling world the most accurate rendition to date." The kit is said to include assembly type track, three figures, and three marking options.

I have seen a few sprue shots, and in my opinion it looks like a good kit. What I did not see in the sprue shots where the molded on zimmerit that it is shown in the Tamiya released pictures. It is possible the sprues with pre-production. And I am not one to normally start rumors, but I have seen some sites taking pre-orders for a possible July release.

A thanks goes out to Armorama member Matthew Nethery for pointing out the release information.